


To all sides only stars, Inside us only stars

by BookofMac



Category: Jack West Jr Series - Matthew Reilly, REILLY Matthew - Works
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Firefly Verse, Crew as Family, Multi, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 09:18:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3972520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookofMac/pseuds/BookofMac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just trying to stay in the sky was hard enough on the Earth-That-Was </p>
<p>Being in space while protecting your child with a rag tag bunch of misfits from the outer rim?</p>
<p>Well lets just say it's going to be exciting</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(AKA my self indulgent Firefly AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	To all sides only stars, Inside us only stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Introduction to the 'Verse

Jack bolted upright. His heart was racing and hearing the long dead screams of the dead. He shook his head clear of the thoughts while standing up from his cot he walked over to the little basin in his room to wash his face using his right hand, the left not being attached yet.

He splashed a small amount of water on his face and looked at himself, dark hair with small stands of silver in the tip with he pulled out, disregarding the pain. His blue eyes stared back at him, almost 10 years since the war and he still looked relativly the same way he did during the battle for Serenity Valley.

His dreams showed him flashed of the carnage and it probably meant that he would need to seek counseling from a shrink on the next inner ring planet they visited. Or not, never any fun and it cost more then the crews combined meals for a month.

After looking at his reflection in contemplation for a while, he sighed has he pulled his desk chair out to sit on so he could reattach his arm. He would sleep with it on occasion but he preferred not to run the risk of accidental suffocation. There was a port just below his elbow where the arm would attach and take time in calibrating to his nervous system. He had gotten the calibration down to complete sync in less the 5 minutes in which he would flex his wrist and fingers to ensure the signals were getting through to the artificial appendage. A tedious proses but necessary to do his work. He would still wonder how Max had managed to get the titanium make his arm. It cost a gorram bomb these days. He was thankful regardless.

After the arm was calibrated he would change. The brown coat from the war over a plain grey button up shirt and dark slacks. He looked at the helmet on his shelf but shook his head. Maybe another day, he thought.

He scaled the stairs up to get to the cockpit of his ship. The Halicarnassus was his baby, as well as his crew. She was Titan Class Heavy-bulk transport, bought by Jack after the war as a coping mechanism of sorts. Regardless he knew that he loved the ship despite…

“Jack!!! Are you up? The coolant line in engine three sprung a leak! Again! It ain’t shiny at all!” A voice called out from the engine room.  Jack sighed exasperatedly and turned toward the general direction of said room were his mechanic was poking his head out the door way.

“What do ya want me do about it Liam? ETA for Delphi is still ‘bout 9 hours. Can’t you just find some tape so we can keep it intact ‘til land fall?”

“Yeah but we need new piping A.S.A.P., this ship is going to be made of duct tape, sweat and my own tears.” He muttered the ending to himself while turning on his heals and walking back to the storage room next to the engine room.

Jack shook his head and snorted. They thankfully had enough money to buy tubing from their last job. But he still needed to get other things repaired so he could have an idea of the money they’d have left for food.

He walked toward the cockpit, opening the door to see his pilot. Sky Monster was staring straight ahead and looking at the stars while flipping switches.

“Mornin’ Jack.” He drawled. He and Jack had been from colonies that originated in New Zealand and Australia in the Earth-that-was respectively and both had the lingering accents despite about 500 years of development.

“Mornin’ how are we goin’ with the path to Persephone? The coolant line in E broke again.”

“ ‘Course it did. We’re on time but hitting atmo might be a bit bumpy. So you’re up early today.”

“Didn’t sleep mighty well again Sky. It happens.”

“Alright bru. Just stay calm. Maybe check the cortex and stay shiny.”

“Thanks Sky. Who’s on breakfast this mornin’?”  

“VJ or Rick I think.” Jack sighed in relief, the two of them were arguably the best cooks on the ship so that probably meant that breakfast would be good eatin’.

“Great. I’m going to need something by them, any news from the Cowboys?”

“Nah, though I think they’ll be in contact soon. Hopefully there aint no Bushwhack in the last couple o hours.”

“Good man Sky. I’ll be in the galley in occasion of an emergency.” Jack said getting ready to turn around.

“ _Jahn_ , Jack. Have a good one.” Sky said focusing back on his piloting, turning the auto pilot off, staring into the black.

“You too _puhn yoh_.” Jack said walking away from him, smirking back at the pilot. Turn back to face the pathway to galley he saw the shadow of two people in the kitchen and heard the involved murmur of a conversation. 

“All I’m sayin’ is that the ruttin _wong ba duhn_ shouldn’t have done that, ya know?”

“I still don’t know man, Oh hey Captain!” Said the second figure sitting at the table. His hair was braided and pulled into a ponytail that was covered in fake plastic flowers threaded through.

“Mornin’ VJ, Ricky.” Jack said giving a nod toward the latter and sitting down to the right of former.

“You seem very chipper this morning captain.” Ricky said as he opened up the fridge to et out the remaining fresh meat and eggs.

“Well I’m trying something different.” Jack said dryly

“What, not being an _ai chr jze se duh fohn diang gho_!” Ricky said jovially as he turned on the gas heater.

“Language Rick!” V.J. Chided sardonically, leaning forward and shaking his head.

“Well _Mei-Mei_ isn’t awake so I can swear all I want at the moment, keep’s me sane like.”

“Karma said that’s going to come back and haunt you.” Jack said seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, a blur of pink. Oh this’ll be fun

“Captain should I get got I shall _tai kong suo you di xing qui dou sai jin wo de pi gu_.” He said, not looking up while he cooked up the leftover fresh produce they had while-

“SWEAR JAR!” a young voice call out loud voice from behind Ricky. Jack swore that he jumped to the roof. Jack cracked a smile while V.J. was almost ready to fall off of his chair from laughter.

“Lily! Why would you do that to my poor heart?” Ricky asked to small girl, “and why are you still in your pyjamas?” He said gesticulating toward who was wearing a fluffy pink dressing gown, a flowery flannel top matching pants.

“I heard you talking about me, silly.” She said giving the man a quick hug before going to sit next to V.J. who had pulled out a chair for her

“Nice going little one, practicing your sneaking skills?” V.J. asked.

“ _Shi_!” Lily said beaming at him. V.J. beamed back at her, having calmed down from his giggling.

“Good girl.” V.J. said tussling her hair. The two of them often practiced creeping but this was the first time that she had snuck up on a crew member other then Max.

“How did you sleep kiddo?” Jack asked the girl smiling at her.

“Very well sir!” Lily replied.

“That’s good. Do you know if Zo or Max are up?”

“I think Zoe’s up, I heard her practicing kickboxing, I’m to sure about Max though. He might be rereading his scripture.” Lily said.

“Well food’s almost up, you might wanna go and get ‘em.” Ricky said while grabbing the eggs to cook and putting the meat inside of a heated tray.

“I’ll get Wizard!” Lily exclaimed jumping away from the table and rushed way from the table.

“Don’t give the poor man a heart attack _Mei-Mei_!” V.J. called from the table still giggling.

“I’ll go and grab Zoe and Liam, get them to hail Sky down.” Jack said standing from his place on the table.

“Also tell Liam that he needs to put a sock in his mouth when he sleeps.” Rick said, flipping the eggs

“Still not talking to him?” Asked Jack, chuckling.

“He almost got me pushed out of an airlock Jack, I think I have the right to be passive aggressive.”

“Keep telling yourself that Enrique.” V.J. said shaking head.

Jack left the room shaking his head, Liam and Ricky were… complicated but Jack didn’t care, so long as they did their jobs he had no problem with them doing whatever they where doing. Them being sly didn’t bother anyone onboard.

Reaching the closest engine room, number two, he opened the door to see Liam and Zoe sparing.

“Zo, Zoe! Uncle! Why are you so mean to me?” Liam said curled up in a ball on the floor with Zoe sitting on top of him, cross legged w.

“You alight there Liam? Your _Jieh-jieh,_ beating you up something good?” he asked leaning on the door frame.

“Damn straight Jack.” Zoe said holding a hand out for her brother to pull him up with.

“She’s so mean to me Jack!” Liam whined nursing his forearm

“What am I, your mother?” Jack asked reassign an eyebrow. “Also Enrique wants you to have a sock in you mouth to stop you from snoring so loud.”

“ _Zhen Dao Mei_ , I’m gonna get killed because no one on this boat loves me.” He said with exaggerated movements.

“You are such a drama queen.” Zoe muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose

“Well you can complain to the everyone at breakfast, which is now by the way.” Jack said in mock sympathy

“Do you want me to hail down Sky?” Zoe asked reaching for the intercom next to the hammock that Liam hung in the room for when he wasn’t sure if the engines would malfunction.

“That would be preferable, yes.” Jack said turning “I’ll meet you out there.”

“See you in a few captain.” Liam called as Jack started to walk away for the engine room and toward the kitchen.

When he got there the table was completely set and the food was waiting to be distributed.

“Ah Jack! You look well rested.” Said Max. The man was sitting at the table and his beard was also braided in the same way that V.J.’s hair was. Lily had no one else that had long hair beside those two and Sky who had been continently ‘locked’ in the pilots cabin.

“Mornin’ Max, you look well slept yourself.” Jack replied as he sat down.

“Here you go sir.” Lily said, squeezing in to the space between him and V.J. placing an egg and a 2 strips of bacon.

“Thank you Kiddo, keep doing stuff like this and I might think about getting you something extra special planet-side.” Jack said smiling. He always got her something planet-side but it was a good motivator for the girl. Lily started to bounce up and down on the balls of her feet as she continued to serve out the food.

Zoe and Liam walk in taking their usual seats on the table, Zoe to the right of jack and Liam next to Lily and started to eat. Sky wandered in a few moments later and got himself settled at the table and dug in after. There was a several moments of comfortable silence as every one settled in to eat

“So Jack what’s the go when we hit planet-side?” Liam asked, interrupting the silence and wiping his mouth.

“Hopefully we can get a couple passengers, I got a answer for the companion wanting to board and we’re gonna pick them up and have everyone else in the guest rooms.”

“And my present.” Lily exclaimed, finishing her water and taking her plate up to the sink.

“Of course _mei-mei_.” Jack said.

“So Jack do we have anything we have to pick up? Of the not so legal sort?” Zoe asked while cutting up the remaining bacon on her plate.

“I think that the twins are setting up a deal, and we still have to sell of those crates of rations.”

“Shiny.” Zoe said nodding while standing, gathering her and Jacks finished plates.

“So. Who do you want on recruitment duty?” V.J. asked, leaning back on his seat.

“I was thinkin’ it could be you and Lily, keeps you two out of trouble. And I need Liam to fix this ship while it’s on the ground and Ricky to help me get good parts while Max is getting food.”

“What about you and Zoe?” Lily asked.

“We are…” Jack paused thinking of how to say ‘we’re helping the sex-worker load up their shuttle their renting for’ without her asking what sex was and how it worked. Not a conversation he wanted to have, not yet at least.

“We’re helping the passengers load up into the guest quarters.” Zoe said, giving Jack a significant look while he mouthed ‘ _thank you’_. Zoe rolled her eyes and head away from the kitchen. “I’ll be in the hold if you need me.”

“Wait for me Zoe!”  Lily said running after her, almost tripping on the polished metal, still wearing her pyjamas.

“Get changed first.” Zoe said in a mock scolding way, Lily pouted but scurried of the her room.

Jack smiled at the scene. It was nice to see the two not pranking the other people of the ship.

“So Boss, you want me to get back to the cockpit?” Sky asked

“Yeah, that’d be great Sky. Make sure we are there on time, I don’t want our ambassador waiting for long _dohn ma_?”

“Yeah, yeah will do bro.” Sky said waddling back up to the cockpit.

“One day you’re going to have to tell us his name Jack.” V.J. said grabbing a cloth to quickly tidy up the table.

“If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, I honestly have no idea what his name is, just call him Sky Monster.”

“Jack that’d like calling me Matador, or V.J. Witch Doctor, those are dumb code names that you have in superhero movies or action novels.” Rick said snorting.

“Just respect his life choices, and if I remember correctly it wasn’t to long ago that you went by Noddy.” Jack said raising an eyebrow. Rick’s face went bright red

“Okay that’s you surrogate daughter’s fault, not mine.”

“You still let her call you that man.” V.J. said while finishing the washing of the dishes and putting them back onto the shelves

“Shut up and go back to the infirmary.” Rick said standing up and heading toward his room. “I’ll see you planet side captain.” He muttered as he passed Jack. The kitchen was silent beside the humming of the engine. V.J. having gone to the infirmary prepping the medical supply ‘just in case’.

“Jack?” Max asked wiping his hands.

“Mm?”

“If you don’t mind me saying, I have a feeling of slight foreboding about the upcoming  venture planet side.” Max said bluntly sitting down on the chair directly opposite to him.

“Don’t you always get those feelings from the anxiety of hitting atmo?” Jack asked in jest.

“I ache with suppressed laughter Jack.’ Max replied, deadpan. “But when we hit planet side, keep safe okay, I don’t want to have anyone in the infirmary, _dong ma_?”

“I understand Max.”

“I’ll be in my room should you need me.”

“Where you being honest when you said I looked well rested?” Jack asked as Max started to turn around. Max paused briefly

“That is a secret between me and the Lord.” Max said eyes sparking. Jack snorted.

“Go back to reading your God book and find somewhere nice and stable for when we hit atmo.” Jack said chuckling.

Max wave his goodbye as he walked toward his room and Jack was left alone in the kitchen.

_Lets just hope this goes well,_ he though toying with his arm. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jahn-awesome  
> Puhn yoh- Friend, pal, buddy   
> wong ba duhn - Son of a bitch  
> Ai Chr Jze Se Duh Fohn Diang Gho - Crazy dog in love with its own feces   
> Tai Kong Suo You Di Xing Qui Dou Sai Jin Wo De Pi Gu - Stuff all the planets in the universe into my ass  
> Mei-mei - Little sister   
> Shi- Yes  
> Jieh-jieh - Big sister  
> Zhen Dao Mei - Just our luck  
> dohn-ma? - Understand


End file.
